


There comes a point when you get so good at putting up that mask you forget how to take it down

by quakingbird



Category: Warehouse 13
Genre: Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:08:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23731354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quakingbird/pseuds/quakingbird
Summary: Just a mini Myka Bering character study because why not
Relationships: Myka Bering/Helena "H.G." Wells (hinted)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	There comes a point when you get so good at putting up that mask you forget how to take it down

**Author's Note:**

> Been rewatching Warehouse 13 for the first time since it aired on TV and wow I had forgotten how much I love Myka Bering. Please leave any comments/suggestions!! :)

The back corner of her closet was Myka’s favorite place to retreat after arguments with her father. There, crouched behind the skirts and dresses she never wore, she would cry until her mother coaxed her out with gentle words and a mug of hot cocoa. “He loves you very much you know,” her mother always said. “And… maybe if you didn’t always _react_ quite so much we could avoid getting to this point.” Myka doesn’t remember the exact moment her mother’s words started sinking in but she does recall hours spent in that cozy corner, working on ways to keep herself calm and slowly building up a mental armor. Soon enough, her even her father’s most biting comments barely elicited a reaction. Her mother was thrilled that Myka had finally learned how to get along with her father.

The problem, Myka thought to herself a few years later, is that there comes a point when you get so good at putting up that mask you forget how to take it down. The perfectly blank facial expression she had perfected as a child was almost always present. Well-meaning members of Myka’s college fencing team loved to joke that she was a robot. After a while, she wasn’t sure she disagreed. But like always, Myka used what she had to her advantage and the calm exterior that had taken so long to build quickly propelled Myka through the ranks of the Secret Service. Sometimes she would think back to the hours spent in the back of her childhood closet and wryly thank her father for the early training.

Sam was something of an enigma. For the first time in Myka’s adult life, someone was not only able to get past her defenses but seemed to just _smash_ right through her carefully constructed armor with the ease of a professional. Every smile he threw her way made Myka’s heart flutter in the way she always imagined protagonists in her guilty-pleasure romance novels felt. She knew the situation was all sorts of wrong- he was married for goodness sake, let alone all the complications with dating a coworker- but she was unable to resist his pull. She felt freer than she could remember ever before feeling in her life. Myka didn’t quite believe in soulmates, but she’s not sure she would protest if someone were to tell her that Sam was hers. Of course, she thought bitterly a few days after his death, there’s no way she had deserved him. Dating a coworker had been a foolish, juvenile error that had gotten Sam killed. All because Myka had been stupid enough to let down her armor. Being buried under the covers of her bed in DC wasn’t quite the same as crouching in the back of her bedroom closet in Colorado but it worked well enough. By the time Myka returned to work, her armor was back up and mask safely secured in place. She had learned her lesson all right and Myka wasn’t one to make the same mistake twice.

Of course, there’s no way she could have predicted that the Warehouse would enter her life. A world suddenly filled with endless wonder, and people as wonderful as Pete and Claudia and Artie and Leena who insisted on loving her no matter how hard she worked to keep her distance. Slowly but surely Myka felt her defenses being worn away, though it certainly wasn’t quite the smash that had come when Myka met Sam. No, that didn’t come until that fateful day in London when HG Wells tricked Pete and Myka into getting themselves stuck on the ceiling. And maybe because it was impossible to be friends with Pete without some of his optimism rubbing off, but weeks later when Myka opened the lid on box containing a grappling hook and felt the last vestiges of her armor finally crumbling away she didn’t resist the shift. There was no way to know what the future would bring but she was done hiding behind herself.


End file.
